close ranks

close ranks

1. Literally, to move closer to the other troops while in a military formation. As soon as the captain called for us to close ranks, we all moved closer together.

2. By extension, to show support for someone or something, especially as a response to criticism. This phrase is typically applied to a group of people. Our family was sure to close ranks behind mom as she suffered public backlash during her campaign for mayor.

close ranks (with someone)

close ranks

(behind someone or something) to support someone or something; to back someone or something. We will close ranks behind the party's nominee.Let's close ranks behind her and give her the support she needs.

close ranks

close ranks

Unite, work together, as in The members decided to close ranks and confront the president. This expression, dating from the late 1700s, comes from the military, where it denotes bringing troops into close order so there are no gaps in the fighting line. (A slightly earlier form was close lines.) It has been used figuratively since the mid-1800s.

close ranks

COMMON If the members of a group close ranks, they say things to show that they support each other totally when someone who is not in their group criticizes one of their members. Note: A rank of soldiers is a line of them standing side by side. They would more likely close ranks and support their president rather than abandon him in an election year.Cabinet ministers have closed ranks behind the Prime Minister, saying there was no question of his stepping down. Note: When soldiers close ranks, they stand closer together so that it is hard for anyone to break through the line.

close ˈranks

(of the members of a profession, group, etc.) co-operate closely to protect and defend each other: Although the family quarrelled a good deal among themselves, they quickly closed ranks against any outsider who criticized one of them.

933-937) Also Cytherea bare to Ares the shield-piercer Panic and Fear, terrible gods who drive in disorder the close ranks of men in numbing war, with the help of Ares, sacker of towns: and Harmonia whom high-spirited Cadmus made his wife.

But no sooner did the herd, by some presumed wonderful instinct of the Sperm Whale, become notified of the three keels that were after them, --though as yet a mile in their rear, --than they rallied again, and forming in close ranks and battalions, so that their spouts all looked like flashing lines of stacked bayonets, moved on with redoubled velocity.

This gentle expression was the more interesting because the schoolmaster's nose, an irregular aquiline twisted a little on one side, had rather a formidable character; and his brow, moreover, had that peculiar tension which always impresses one as a sign of a keen impatient temperament: the blue veins stood out like cords under the transparent yellow skin, and this intimidating brow was softened by no tendency to baldness, for the grey bristly hair, cut down to about an inch in length, stood round it in as close ranks as ever.

Then Robin Hood gathered his band together in a close rank, with Will Stutely in the midst, and thus they moved slowly away toward Sherwood, and were gone, as a storm cloud moves away from the spot where a tempest has swept the land.

The confederation urged forces in the country, aware as they are of the delicate nature of this stage, "to close ranks in order to embark on efforts to salvage the situation, put the country back on track towards growth and restore respect for the value of labour.

For his part, the defecting former Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hejab thanked the Saudi King for his support to the Syrian opposition to close ranks and unify stances to launch a political process to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict.

NNA - Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdullatif Darian on Friday highlighted the necessity to entrench Islamic and national unity, close ranks, and skirt disputes and quandaries, accentuating the role of Dar-al-Fatwa in anchoring love, tolerance, and coexistence among the Lebanese.

Al-Araji confirmed that "to eliminate the terrorist operations we must to close ranks and cooperate with the security agencies in order to thwart an attempt to implement any terrorist plot intended to split the Iraqi people.

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